The Altar
Improvisation
2023
The Allympics
Sports Drawings & Paintings
Excess Water, Deserted Land
2022
Carnivores
The Games
2021 Recovery Exercises | Recovery Project
The Games, 2022, performance (still). Video: Gregor Emmanuel
Conceived by Yiyao, The Games consists of three events: running race, wrestling and football. From the earliest form of sport–stadion race in human civilization, the portrayal of wrestling in ancient Egyptian artworks, to the Christmas Truce football match during WWI, the three sports events are witnesses of history, entwined with their times. Instead of doing the performance herself, “athletes” in The Games are proxy performers, thus becoming extensions from Yiyao’s body. The performers, dressed in outfits specially designed for them, “compete” for the three events. Concurrently, sports competitions in such case can be interpreted as proxies of world politics: power struggles, team work, peace, violence, inequality......